


When She Was Anne

by Evil_Little_Dog



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Community: fandom_stocking, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-13
Updated: 2011-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/Evil_Little_Dog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she was Anne, she wasn't Buffy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When She Was Anne

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stars91](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Stars91).



> Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all.

X X X

When she was Anne, there were things she didn’t have to deal with, like vampires, or demons or hellmouths. They weren’t part of Anne’s life. Anne was more about making sure counters were clean and taking down food orders. Smiling for her customers. Making sure everyone left the diner as happy as she could make them.

But that part of town wasn’t the happiest. And going home from work sucked, not on the whole, ‘vampire gonna eat me’ level, but on the bone-deep, ‘there isn’t anything for me here, I’m lost’ kind.

All she’d had with her was the things she’d stuffed into her duffel, underwear, toothbrush –

\- _a silver cross, one she stared at for a long time before deciding to take it, take it take it because it was a memory of him and what else did she have left but memories?_ -

hair brush, a packet of ramen noodles and a photograph of the Scoobies her Mom had taken. And her beeper, but she’d stopped looking at it after the first forty-eight hours. The numbers were all the same, Mom, Giles, Willow, Dad – Dad? – Xander, Giles, Mom, Mom, Mom, Willow. The rotation had been almost like a game – which number would pop up next?

But she didn’t call home. She didn’t even send a letter, nothing. Nothing to tell them she was all right. The world hadn’t ended, so that should tell them Angel – Acathla – was gone, taken care of, everything was safe and sound and they could live their happy lives.

When she was Anne, she curled up on a couch with busted springs, holding tight to a pillow that smelled like tears. She didn’t think about the past, not willingly, and couldn’t think about the future. Not yet.

Not until Anne figured out how to mend the shattered heart of a one-time vampire slayer.

X X X

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Stars91 for the 2010 exchange at the LJ Community, Fandom_Stocking.


End file.
